Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2014
Kala Stein is an artist and designer noted for innovative mold making and casting techniques. Her work explores dynamic systems and practices within the intersection of design, production, and craft. Kala received her MFA in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and a BFA in Ceramics from SUNY New Paltz. Along with her collaborative group, she received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant to explore architectural terra cotta and digital fabrication at the Maryland Institute of Art. She exhibits her work widely and works with private clients on custom ceramics fabrication for the home and hospitality industry. Kala is Director of Ceramics & Arts at Sonoma Community Center, California, where she directs the public studio art programming and
The Water Where series is inspired by the unfolding tragedy of climate change. Implications of water scarcity are evident as ecosystems are profoundly impacted by manufacturing and agricultural practices, population density, and policy. To illuminate this extraordinary destruction, photographic imagery of serene fresh waters are fragmented then patched back together into colored patterns with intermittent gold glaze. The work brings attention to the inherent value and beauty of water by contrasting it with a fragmented depiction. As a result, the series both acknowledges the indisputable destruction of this resource and memorializes our current water situation by preserving a precious image on a fragile, everlasting material.